Hill Climbers
The house that Robertson built: a look at the minister’s team to date
Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson’s office is currently almost fully staffed up, with 18 aides confirmed to date.
As previously reported, Marie-Pascale Des Rosiers is in place as chief of staff to the first-time federal minister, who’s also been given responsibility for the regional agency Pacific Economic Development Canada (PacifiCan).
Mary-Liz Power has been tapped as director of policy to Robertson. She’s spent much of this year as a senior adviser in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office, but before then was director of issues management and senior policy adviser to then-public safety, democratic institutions, and intergovernmental affairs minister Dominic LeBlanc, with Power’s policy focus having been on the public safety file.
A former staffer at Queen’s Park, Power first arrived on the Hill at the beginning of 2020 as press secretary to then-public safety minister Bill Blair. Between 2021 and early 2023, Power was an issues adviser in then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s office, after which she spent close to a year as a senior policy adviser to then-foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly. Power joined LeBlanc’s public safety team in late 2023 where she spent her first year, roughly, as deputy director of policy.
Reporting to Power are senior policy adviser Eamonn Schwartz and policy advisers Sanjana Shah and Bayan Kadri.
Schwartz similarly comes from LeBlanc’s old public safety team, which Schwartz joined as a policy adviser in late 2024. He continued as an adviser after now-Defence Minister David McGuinty took charge of the public safety file last December. A former assistant to Quebec Liberal MP Rachel Bendayan, Schwartz landed his first ministerial job in 2022 when he was hired as an Atlantic regional adviser to then-employment minister Carla Qualtrough. He went on be a policy and Atlantic adviser to Qualtrough as then-sport and physical activity minister before exiting to work for LeBlanc.
Shah is a first-time cabinet staffer and past 2022 summer intern in the office of then-Toronto Liberal MP Arif Virani. According to her LinkedIn profile, she was most recently busy as a junior policy analyst with The Dias, a think tank at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Kadri is an ex-policy adviser to then-families and children minister Jenna Sudds, whose office Kadri joined back in May 2024. Before then, Kadri worked as an assistant to Ontario Liberal MP Arielle Kayabaga—whose successful 2025 re-election campaign Kadri recently ran—and to then-MP Carolyn Bennett. She’s also a past programming co-ordinator with Dress For Success Ottawa.
Leading operations for Robertson is director Enkhjin Enzo Zorigtbaatar. Zorigtbaatar is another former foreign affairs staffer, having been hired as a policy adviser to then-minister Joly in October 2023 following almost a year and a half as a Quebec regional adviser to then-tourism and associate finance Randy Boissonnault.
A former policy analyst with Public Services and Procurement Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada, Zorigtbaatar has also worked as an aide to Quebec Liberal MP Sophie Chatel and interned for then-MP Catherine McKenna.
Also playing a senior role as part of Robertson’s operations and regional affairs unit is Reeha Korpal, director of PacifiCan.
Korpal has been working on the PacifiCan file since shortly after its creation in August 2021. A former special assistant to Harjit Sajjan as then-national defence minister, Korpal followed Sajjan when he was shuffled into the role of minister of international development and given charge of PacifiCan after the 2021 election, with Korpal becoming a policy adviser focused on the regional economic development agency. Late last year, she was promoted to “senior” status. Prior to joining his ministerial team, Korpal worked as a constituency assistant to Sajjan as the then-MP for Vancouver South, B.C., between 2015 and 2020.
Robertson represents the rejigged riding of Vancouver Fraserview–South Burnaby, B.C., which, among other things, includes much of the former riding of Vancouver South.
Covering the British Columbia regional desk for Robertson is senior regional adviser Diane Chieng. Another ex-constituency aide to Sajjan, Chieng got her first cabinet-level gig in 2023 when she was hired as an executive assistant in Qualtrough’s office as then-employment minister. Chieng went on to be a West and North regional affairs adviser and special assistant for operations to Qualtrough as sport minister, and at the beginning of this year joined then-immigration minister Marc Miller’s team as operations manager. According to her LinkedIn profile, Chieng spent the election tackling operations for now-Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight’s successful campaign in Delta, B.C.
Chieng’s CV also includes time spent working with B.C.’s Ministry of the Attorney General’s court services branch.
Annina Plummer is Prairies and North regional affairs adviser to Robertson. Plummer moved from Edmonton to Ottawa to work for the Liberal government in 2022 when she was hired as a special assistant and executive assistant to the chief of staff to Joly as then-foreign affairs minister. Roughly a year later, Plummer joined then-public safety minister Marco Mendicino’s office as a regional adviser for Ontario and the Prairies. LeBlanc took over the public safety portfolio shortly thereafter, and Plummer’s focus subsequently shifted to covering the Prairies and North regional desks. According to her LinkedIn profile, she continued with the public safety team under McGuinty, taking on added responsibility for Atlantic regional affairs.
Overseeing Atlantic regional affairs for Robertson as a senior adviser is Cordell Johnson. To Hill Climbers’ understanding, Johnson was last working on the Hill in 2023 as an Ontario regional adviser to then-defence minister Anita Anand. A former case officer with Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, Johnson is also past special assistant to then-families minister Ahmed Hussen and in Trudeau’s PMO.
Malia Chenaoui is a senior regional affairs adviser for Quebec to the housing minister. Since the start of 2025, amid successive changes to the cabinet lineup, Chenaoui has worked for Bendayan as then-official languages and associate public safety minister, and for McGuinty as then-public safety minister, according to her LinkedIn profile. Before then, Chenaoui was a senior policy and Quebec regional affairs adviser to then-innovation minister François-Philippe Champagne. For roughly two years, between 2022 and 2024, Chenaoui worked for the federal defence minister, starting as a Quebec regional adviser to then-minister Anand, and ending as a policy adviser to then-minister Blair. Chenaoui is also a past assistant to then-Quebec Liberal MP Soraya Martinez Ferrada and Quebec MP Peter Schiefke, amongst other past experience.
Pierce Collier is director of parliamentary affairs and issues management for Robertson.
Collier most recently did the same for then-public services and procurement minister Jean-Yves Duclos, and previously did likewise for Hussen as both then-housing, diversity, and inclusion minister and later as then-international development minister. Collier first began working for Hussen in early 2021 as a parliamentary affairs adviser and issues manager in Hussen’s office as then-families minister. Before then, Collier had been an Atlantic adviser and issues manager to then-seniors minister Deb Schulte. He’s also been a special assistant for Atlantic regional affairs to then-science and sport minister Kirsty Duncan, and an assistant to then-Liberal MP Nick Whalen.
Working under Collier is legislative adviser and issues manager Giuliana Endrizzi. An ex-aide to Liberal MP Judy Sgro and then-MP Chad Collins, Endrizzi landed a job as a legislative adviser and parliamentary assistant to then-housing minister Sean Fraser last August, and has been working on the file since.
Leading communications for Robertson is ex-PMO press secretary Mohammad Hussain, who was an Ottawa-based spokesperson for the Liberal campaign during the recent federal election. While he was most recently director of communications to Martinez Ferrada as then-tourism and Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec minister, Hussain fielded media requests in Trudeau’s PMO for almost two years between early 2023 until late 2024.
A former program co-ordinator with Jack.org, Hussain has been working on the Hill since the 2019 election, starting as an assistant in now-Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden’s MP office. He’s since also been a special assistant for parliamentary affairs to then-innovation ministers Navdeep Bains and Champagne, and press secretary to then-families minister Karina Gould.
Renée LeBlanc Proctor is press secretary and senior communications adviser to the housing minister. She was most recently press secretary to then-immigration minister Miller, and before then was a senior communications adviser to Qualtrough as then-sport and physical activity minister. Prior to joining Qualtrough’s team in December 2023, LeBlanc Proctor was an associate copy editor with Narcity Media. According to her LinkedIn profile, she spent the recent election tackling communications for Liberal MP Tim Louis’ successful re-election campaign in Kitchener-Conestoga, Ont.
Also in place as a senior communications adviser to Robertson is Piper McWilliams.
McWilliams is a former communications, and later senior communications adviser to Duclos as then-public services and procurement minister, whose office McWilliams joined last fall. Before then, McWilliams was a communications assistant and executive assistant in then-citizens’ services minister Terry Beech’s office. She’s also previously been executive assistant to Gould as then-families minister, and an assistant to then-B.C. MP Joyce Murray, among other things.
Rounding out Robertson’s communications team is Kiana Pilon as communications adviser and digital media manager. Pilon was most recently a communications adviser to Anand as then-transport minister. A 2023 summer intern in the office of the Treasury Board president, Pilon subsequently scored a full-time job as a communications assistant to then-president Anand, who had replaced Liberal MP Mona Fortier in the portfolio in July 2023. According to Pilon’s LinkedIn profile, she spent the recent writ working on Liberal candidate Tracey Sweeney Schenk’s campaign in Hastings–Lennox and Addington–Tyendinaga, Ont. Ultimately, that seat was held by Conservative incumbent Shelby Kramp-Neuman.
Though Hill Climbers understands further hires are expected in Robertson’s office, capping off the minister’s current 18-member team is Annyse Hawkins as executive assistant to both the minister and his chief of staff, Des Rosiers.
Hawkins previously worked in the PMO at the same time as Des Rosiers—who’s an ex-advance to then-PM Trudeau—in Hawkins’ case as a special assistant supporting then-PMO chief of staff Katie Telford. Hawkins is also a former research adviser with PAA Advisory, assistant to now-Secretary of State for International Development Randeep Sarai as the MP for Surrey Centre, B.C., and was part of the 2021-22 Parliamentary Internship Programme.
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